The Leadership Desk p1 The Idea Part One, The Idea The Leadership Desk was presented by Arthur Vickers in October of 2009 and resides permanently in the Premier’s Office of British Columbia. (Video) Galleries West, May 25, 2013

Winnipeggers to perform at the Venice Biennale Among the artists, filmmakers and writers are musicians Christine Fellows and Leanne Zacharias who have been invited to perform at the opening. “We consider her (Shary Boyle) to be an honourary Winnipegger,” says Fellows. “She is a Toronto artist but we still claim her as our own.” CBC, May 28, 2013

Canadian Art in Venice: Our Spotlight on the Biennale Canada promises to have a significant presence at this year’s Venice Biennale, which opens to the public on June 1. Toronto’s Shary Boyle is being featured at the Canada Pavilion, ; Canadian-British artist Corin Sworn is exhibiting at the Scottish Pavilion, ; Newfoundland artists Will Gill and Peter Wilkins are exhibiting in a collateral event of the biennale titled “About Turn”, ; and Sobey Art Award winner Raphaëlle de Groot is going to be doing a performance during the biennale’s preview days…

Slideshow: How Shannon Bool Makes Surfaces Speak The work of BC-born, Berlin-based artist Shannon Bool is rife with oppositions. Whether it’s in a collision of cultural legacies and social realities or in the material contrasts between what is seen and unseen, Bool’s intricately wrought and subtly coded sculptures, paintings, photograms and video works lend fresh perspective to the aesthetic hierarchies and hidden narratives of everyday life. Canadian Art, May 27, 2013

Amsterdam

Masterworks for One and All Many museums post their collections online, but the Rijksmuseum here has taken the unusual step of offering downloads of high-resolution images at no cost, encouraging the public to copy and transform its artworks into stationery, T-shirts, tattoos, plates or even toilet paper. New York Times, May 29, 2013

Haarlem

Frans Hals: Haarlem Renaissance An exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum sheds new light on the artist, his techniques, and his influence. Art News, May 29, 2013

Poland

Culture Wars In Poland Over 2010 Air Disaster That Decimated Government “On a foggy April morning in 2010, the Polish president’s plane crashed over Smolensk in eastern Russia, killing him and 95 other members of Poland’s political and military elite, traumatizing the nation and opening a bitter political divide over what caused the disaster. Now the fissures have spread to the cultural realm, as filmmakers, writers and artists fiercely debate how – or even whether – to portray this still-visceral history.” New York Times, May 29, 2013

Could Lahore Restore Its Medieval Quarter To Its Mughal-Era Splendor? “The Walled City’s gardens and squares are now obscured by illegal shops and businesses, the skyline cluttered by unplanned tenements and bundles of cables. … But last month the new Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) – in effect an independent town council – met for the first time. The body oversees the ambitious plan to restore the past glory … of the city’s oldest neighbourhood.” The Guardian (UK) May 26, 2013

Art Basel in Hong Kong Sells East and West Hong Kong’s worst rains since 2010, which resulted in landslides and the temporary shutdown of financial markets and government offices, couldn’t delay last week’s inaugural edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong (May 23-26). Art in America, May 29, 2013

International

Studies: Arts Therapy Helps In Treatment Of Disease “On the whole, people with cancer who were assigned to creative arts treatments reported less depression, anxiety, and pain and a better quality of life during the programs than those who were put on a wait list or continued receiving usual care.” Pacific Standard, May 26, 2013